I left New Zealand mid-2003, bound for Istanbul and a new lif. After two years, a Belgian guy lured me into his world, deep in the heart of Europe. For a long time I was an in-process immigrant. One day we married. These days it's about photography, a little red wine and wandering ... and so the journey goes.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Eduardo Dávila Miuram Bullfighter

For him, a relationship with the animals is essential to being a good bullfighter. 'As a torero you have a deep connection with the bulls,' he emphasises. 'That’s exactly what most people don’t want to understand.'

The intensive dual with the bull inevitably reveals the soul of the torero. 'The way you fight reveals who you are,' Dávila Miura quotes the famous Andalusian bullfighter Juan Belmonte. 'As a bullfighter you’re completely alone, even if thousands of people are watching your fight. It is an unimaginable loneliness. The only thing you can sense at that moment is the bull.'

The aim is to read the animal’s character; there are different types of bulls and you have to fight in a different way with each one. 'There are also dishonest bulls, real actors,' he laughs. If you heard Dávila Miura talk about bulls, you would be able to sense the love for the animals he grew up with, and of which he has killed so many in the arena.Eduardo Dávila Miuram

Isn't it really the love of knowing the animal with such objective certainty that he fully appreciates the danger and fully aprreciates his own superiority where others fail? I don't think appreciation or intense fascination is love if it's the means to another end. I guess my argument is questionable, though.